I have this issue where I would like to straight up create a virtual image of a computer running so the user is unaware, take that virtual image and put his image on a brand new machine so there's no setup needed when he first logs into a "new machine" on our domain. Has anyone been able to do this? I was able to create a virtual disk image using multiple files, but with smartdeploy, it will only work with 1 file. I really hope my rambling made sense...

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I don't think you'l be able to restore the image to bare metal of a different flavor. On the new system you'd have to run a hypervisor of some kind and then have it utilize the VHD you made of the original machine. (I think some support booting directly to a VHD, but I have no experience with that).

Why not just set up a new machine, and then use W.E.T. (Windows Easy Transfer) to transfer their profile?

Or if it's an identical system use ReDo Backup (or CloneZilla) on the source and destination to make an identical copy, but I don't think you'll be able to do that without interfering with them.

Well it's not a completely different machine. It's more like a 1 year later model of the same type, Lenovo M82 to Lenovo M92. He is one of those people that like everything perfect the first time around (and it needs to be for sanity's sake). I'll give W.E.T. a try, but i was really hoping there was an easier way. We just started using SmartDeploy so weren't sure if it was possible or not.

Ok, so depending on the OS that you are about to boot to... you might be able to boot from a VHD.

In other words, P2V the old system to a .vhd file

Run a clean install on the new system

Build, configure, mount a VHD file to install the new OS onto.

(It was easiest to just allow the install to complete to configure the boot partitions and stuff for me)

use a bootable USB drive and replace the VHD file that the OS was just installed to with the VHD that you created with the P2V step.

Be sure to use the same name for the vhd file.

I've found that this is almost the same concept that is used with the Steadier state tool from Mark Minasi. BTW I use this tool and or scripts that he provides to P2V (cvt2vhd, preps an image quite well) without the parent vhd /snapshot concept.

Although I have to agree with Kelly on the hardware issues, I've come to find out that if you sysprep the system prior to the P2V and you capture this image, it helps elevate most headaches of drivers and BSOD when the hardware changes are seen by the OS when the old OS from the old system vhd is booted in the new hardware.

Great question thefuture4, this does come up from time to time. From what it sounds like, you want to do a V2P conversion and then V2P back down to an alternate computer. Today, this is not a supported feature for SmartDeploy and for deliberate reasons. In part because of the hardware-dependence that you'd immediately tie yourself to and is one big reason why customers like SmartDeploy (the ability to apply a custom image to anything without BSOD, or any other issues!).

That said, it is possible. Albeit from CMD line. Essentially, you boot the physical computer to our SmartPE environment. Shift+F10 to bring up a CMD line. Use SmartWIM /capture to create your image. You'd reverse the process on the target computer only using SmartWIM /apply. PM me and I'll give you the more verbose how-to if that is what you want to do.

Another thought that I had is that you could look into tools that VMware and others have that are designed to convert physical computers into virtual machines to at least get you started.

From a best practices perspective and personal opinion, depending on the scale of what you're asking for it might cause more problems than it is worth. Again - at scale. I definitely get the argument for a one-off (happy with the current config, just want to transplant that onto an alternate computer).

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I don't think you'l be able to restore the image to bare metal of a different flavor.

VMware Horizon Mirage does this just fine. They split the desktop into layers, and restore a different driver layer for the different machine (or if its being restored to a VM, you can insert the virtual driver layer).

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